It's Almost Like Blockbuster Wanted to Die
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ก.ค. 2024
- Blockbuster's only claim to fame these days is the fact that there is only one of them left. It didn't have to be this way, however, as Blockbuster had many chances to remain on top... chances they completely blew.
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Sources:
www.slashfilm.com/blockbuster...
consumerist.com/2007/11/01/bl...
www.fastcompany.com/1683062/b...
www.fastcompany.com/1683812/b...
www.oregonlive.com/pacific-no...
www.billboard.com/biz/article...
www.fool.com/investing/genera...
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4...
www.telegraph.co.uk/technolog...
arstechnica.com/uncategorized...
variety.com/2013/biz/news/epi...
Videos:
Parks and Recreation (2009 - 2015)
www.imdb.com/title/tt1266020/
South Park (1997 - present)
www.imdb.com/title/tt0121955/
Commercials from Blockbuster LLC,
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Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
www.imdb.com/title/tt0080684/
Friends (1994 - 2004)
www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (2014 - present)
www.imdb.com/title/tt3530232/
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Logo for Redbox, www.redbox.com/
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Logo for Motorola, www.motorola.co.uk/
Logo for Little Chef, www.littlechef.co.uk/
Music:
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You forgot to mention the biggest one. That the founder of Netflix didn’t think he would be able to compete with blockbuster if blockbuster took him seriously so in an effort to protect Netflix from being run out of business by its much larger competitor he approached blockbuster executives and offered a deal where he would rebrand Netflix blockbuster streaming or something and act as their streaming and mail order branch, and essentially become part of blockbusters. And they laughed at him and said no.....and Netflix wasn’t a nothing company at this point they had quite a substantial number of users already.
Is this referring to the chance blockbuster had to buy out netflix cause thats what it sounds like and he mentioned that at the beginning.
@@GhostEmblem Yes,you are right.
if I am BB CEO,I would accept the offer because they are using emerging technologies,which will be a long-term investment for the future.
@@explosivemodesonicmauricet1597
I'm glad they didn't.
Most big companies have that do that never end up using the new tech and just stick to the old stuff because its cheaper and less effort. So all the new innovative tech nowadays get bought up then put on the shelf but are under licence so they are never to be used to challenge the existing players and we are stuck with 20-30 year technologies.
Nerflix had the last laugh - and typical management ridiculing the little man / company out of its door.
The 3 reasons that last Blockbuster is still open:
It's a guy who paid to use the name so it isn't a corporate owned store, it's directly next door from a Papa Murphy's and one of the best pot shops in town is across the street.
I live near it.
I thought the blockbuster in Bend OR was a legit Buster? I remember going to it before BBs were closing in mass.
Heruhcane Dean , there is a BB in Los angeles which only existed to fool customers into paying for a DirectTv subscription.
There's also one by Corpus Cristi in Texas
I love this piece of trivial information
No, pot shops as in cast iron pots and pans. Man people will come from the next town over to get themselves some Papa Murhpy's, rent a movie and pick up some high quality, locally forged pots.
It's the cultural hotspot of the area in large part due to the fresh, non-stick pans made without synthetic materials, and it's always good to buy local because you know where the good stuff comes from that way. (It comes from an open pit mine a few miles away, insider tip for you).
Anyway, I'm off to buy me the biggest pots I can find so I can cook some spaghetti and meth, bye bye.
I worked for Blockbuster. Our store kept in profit by basically ignoring everything upper management said. Oh, and the computer systems we used were designed in 1985! That's the year Blockbuster came to the UK. They literally NEVER updated the computers once... We even had a modern PC emulating the old 1985 operating system. The operating system was so slow it had a frame rate of about 1/2 FPS. xD
PRODUCTIVITY
Ours crashed alot, and our counter had a till display for a till that was removed 10 years before that was just there and didnt do anything.
[sic] oh my god, more proof they really were dinosaurs !!
What are the type of things management would say that were being ignored
Big Dick search for factfiend video about blockbusters
Big Dick, for example, at one point we were supposed to refuse rental to anyone that didn't have their blockbuster card with them; even if they had their driver's license on them. And not letting people rent until they paid their late fees.
Netflix: *shoots as arrow 100 meters away and lands a perfect bullseye* Bet you can’t do that.
Blockbuster: Oh yeah? *throws bow on the ground, sprints 100 meters, impales the bullseye and breaks the arrow*
The impaling involved a naked Blockbuster executive, and a Bulgarian dude had to clean the cumstains off of the bullseye afterwards. The poor arrow broke because it saw what happened to the bullseye and didn't want to live in this world anymore...
I used to work at Hollywood Video (Blockbuster's main competitor in the U.S. for a couple decades there) in college. During the rise of Netflix, rather than go ahead and buy Netflix, Blockbuster instead attempted to spend a boatload of money to purchase Hollywood Video. :-) Instead another company outbid them at close to a billion dollars. Five years later, Hollywood video was gone. -Daven
I LOVE UR CHANNEL!
Wouldn’t expect to see you here simon
Today I Found Out So your a Cali boi
Today I Found Out That your a cali boy
Oh cool you're here
So Blockbuster bragged that their online streaming service had lower quality encodes of films? What?
It used to be a good thing back when internet wasn't very fast. Lower encodes means less bandwidth.
I think it’s still a good thing considering how much everything cost and considering game download sizes and data usage on consoles in households it just makes sense
yeah but local video stores be the best
5 years later and The Spot makes it to the big screen.
"Do you mind if people share their account?" "Nah." How the tables have turned.
Greed always prevails
and it gets better, as Netflix released a kiddie port flick, then has another kiddie porn animation, and has several cast members of another of their originals being arrested and/or convicted of pedo acts. I guess when BlockBuster finally died, Netflix rushed to hire all the failed executives of BlockBuster to mismanage their company and operate on the adage, if it works, break it, and if it's broke, don't fix it.
@@Seriously_Unserious wait, what? What show was that? I assume the movie you mention is Cuties, didn't hear about a pedo cartoon?
@@Canadish TheQuartering talked about it in a video today (or yesterday by the time you're reading this). I only heard about it just then.
Exactly what I was thinking when he said that.
didnt blockbuster let people rent games?
*why didnt they use that*
Mgooy Shame you can't rent a Sausage Roll from Gregg's.
Karl bought his copy of Vanquish from a Blockbuster for £3.
i used to rent games from blockbuster once in a while, but i was young and couldnt get the good m rated games, so eventualy i just bugged my parents to buy them permanently, now i dont even get physical copys of games just dowload them through PSN
In their final years they even sold new and used games, the used games were pretty damn cheap, got quite a few good 360 games at the time for about $10-$15, was very sad when they closed down especially since at the time I lived literally right next door to a blockbuster, game shopping was great haha.
G4m3r11 yes you can. They just might not want it back when your done.
I always imagined the Blockbuster CEOs saying "those silly kids and their internets". I heard another story about Netflix approaching Blockbuster about a merger and were denied
Yeah, that was pretty much them to a T. Them AND corporate. It was so fucking obnoxious!
we had a blockbuster in my town, but when the building was sold they still kept up the sign, so now we have a liquor store with a movie ticket as its sign
Same I don't know what the business is but there is a business in my town with the blockbuster ticket sign with their companies name on it
a fitness center near me kept the ticket sign but replaced the graphic.
Yo wait are you in kansas
@@SpiderconPrime no
@@gabriellemorvan1423 ah alright there was one in manhattan that was very similiar
What Blockbuster said: "No more late fees!"
What customers heard: "Please steal from us!"
Seriously. I worked at a Blockbuster for four years, and arguments over late fees/restocking fees were, hands-down, the most frequent headache we all had to deal with. I couldn't count how many times I was lectured about the class-action lawsuit ... which apparently didn't mean shit to us anyway, as we were a Canadian Blockbuster and the Canadian branch had small print on every receipt that basically explained that no, you in fact DON'T get to keep the stuff you rent forever with no consequences. And while I could always kind of see it from the customers' perspective (the restocking fee was a "fee" for being "late" ... hence a "late-fee"), a lot of people were incredibly entitled to start with and this just made it worse. Quite a few of them basically thought "no late fees" meant they could rent a $70 video game for ten bucks and just keep it forever, and with that whole "it charges full price after seven days" thing, you'd end up with delinquent accounts with as much as three hundred dollars owing. And no, those missing games and movies don't magically grow back.
Wednesday morning was always "delinquent account call day," with a list as long as your arm. Even ten years later I am infinitely grateful I rarely had to work that shift.
I remember when there was a blockbuster was in my neighborhood. It got replaced with an ER. Good call that was.
A Mad Lad think mine is currently a Japanese restaurant
Ours is a poundland
Do we live in the same neighborhood? that's what happened to my neighborhood blockbuster exactly xD
Mine is a walk in clinic, I went in after injuring my foot and they told me it was a avulsion fracture. I then went to an actual orthopedic office and they told my that it was just really badly strained and the part that the clinic thought was a chip off of my foot bones was actually a growth plate. Basically the clinic is run by a hack.
Still more useful than a blockbuster
Bruh so did mine
"Do you mind people sharing their Netflix account."
"No. It's fine"
2023
"We will now charge you extra for sharing accounts."
My family tried to be loyal to Blockbuster, but the Blockbuster website was so user-unfriendly that we couldn't figure out how to rent by mail with Blockbuster.
_sees the title_
"Oh, it can't be that bad..."
_watches the video_
"Oh, it's even worse."
My only memory of little chef was my sister throwing up as we went to pay the bill....
Clearly the food was that bad
I remember going only once. Food was terrible and the place was filthy.
That's my only memory of it too except it was my brother
I remember the food was stale and I hated it. An independent place took over a place on route to our normal staycation and it was and remains fantastic.
The last blockbuster got a twitter account lmao
Lukas
No way!
Good, they charged me so many late fees. Haha who got the last laugh blockbuster.
parody account
I worked at Blockbuster during the dark times. Right before the "no more late fees" period and left right before the app really came out. They were so confident that their stores were going to be the thing that kept them in the game. I was training as a store manager and the trainer would actively argue with people who accidentally rented Blu Ray instead of DVD and needed to exchange them. She called them dumb, asked them if they couldn't see the words Blu Ray printed on it, and then promptly denied their exchange. This happened at least once a day and was supported by the regional managers. When I got my store, the old manager who was transitioning a store to me DID THE SAME THING. We lost at least one customer a day per store to this ludicrous practice, and that is just one rude thing I was actively trained to do. As soon as the training wheels came off, I ignored this practice and all the dipshit methods taught to me in training, treated the customers like actual humans and not DVD/Blu Ray finding troglodytes, and mysteriously my store numbers rocketed up and stayed up during my tenure. TL;DR: Blockbuster also actively treated long time customers like shit destroying any hope of maintaining loyal customers.I don't think a 16 minute video is long enough to go over all the dumbass things they did.
The thing I always find funny is that Blockbuster actually briefly worked on a streaming service in 2001. They literally could have been way out in front with streaming services.
"oh shit fellas this looks like it might actually work let's turn the fuck around, let's not be the inventors of the next fucking radio or even the next color television we got a ship to sink"
Yeah the funny part is (just because you never might have connected this) is the reason the streaming service died was it was made by Enron
“Re-stocking fee, that just sounds like a late fee with extra steps!”
Shut the hell up Morty
Just one more fact for you Fact Fiend and this is 100% I swear (you can even look into) one of my good friend's dad started a company early 1985 in our hometown, called Blockbuster. A few months later in 1985 (October to be exact) Blockbuster (the video rental store) was established. When my friend's dad found out, he tried to get the full rights to the company name (since he had incorporated first) Try as he might, he couldn't get them to sway so he settled as the second-hand Blockbuster. Fast forward years later and incredibly enough his company (the REAL Blockbuster) is still going strong while the massive movie rental company has since dissolved. I'm always so proud that my friend's family hung in there and beat the beast! Truly a David and Goliath story (or I suppose a story where the underdog just waits it out and the big huge dog totally loses!) Anyway, thought you'd like that little tidbit and keep those facts coming!!! (Also, just in case you want to see it for yourself here is their commercial, made by my friend: th-cam.com/video/CguWudkMjC4/w-d-xo.html )
Damn.
Kinda cool, though, that advertisement, those model names kinda...I dunno....I don't get it, im sure it makes sense, but I can't for the life of me figure it out!
More so than David and Goliath, it seems like a true Tortoise and the Hare story... Assuming that it was rabbit season.
Also, that's brilliant! I love how straightforward that ad is. We cut wood! It's not complicated! A very cool story.
@@Elenrai I'd guess the first number is the length in feet? Seems to range from 12 to 22, so seems about right, maybe?
That's so cool. As a small business owner myself, I can appreciate things like this.
"good will" from the company that had multiple class action lawsuits over their ridiculous billing practices. I think Netflix's early advertising revolved around Blockbuster's terrible service
I kinda wanna open my own Blockbuster-style VHS/DVD/video games store now,
just out of convenience and nostalgia.
Wish you luck on that if you do open it.
Rent adult films too
I only have memories of being in a blockbuster as a child, never entering, never leaving, just being inside
I went to the last Blockbuster on Earth last summer in 2019, and scored some cheap John Candy films. Only in Oregon.
I used to have a Blockbuster in my city to it go replace with an XXX rated store.
What are you talking about dude?
Mine got replaced with a 24hr gym
Mine is still empty.....
Mine is now a mcdonalds :'3
>to it go replace with
I remember when I was a kid we would always go to Blockbuster for movies. I loved it. I always wondered what happened to it. Then I wrote a school paper on it.
Learning that Blockbuster was also in Europe makes realize even further how hard they failed
Fun story about Blockbuster, there was a PC game on a shelf in Blockbuster not long before the shops in my area closed down, called Dawn of War II which included all the DLC priced at £19, I bought it at the advertised price but it scanned out at £96 so yeah I don't think they really wanted to survive lol
I like how this is told like Netflix didn’t do anything and Blockbuster just took them as a threat and fucked it up
BlockBuster: Is this it? Is this the end? What sequence of events brought me to this point? What abroad circumstances lead me here? Is this the cruel painful plan that was orchestrated by a malevolent deity? Who am I really? What purpose did I serve in this life that was granted to me? I suppose I'll never know. If this is what my life lead up to, and if this is truly the end, then I accept my fate.
Lol
I remember going to the local Blockbuster with my mom and dad. I'm pretty sure every time we went we always rented the live action Scooby-Doo movie.
Me: Dad whats Blockbuster?
Dad: oh let me tell you a long story.
Blockbuster locations could have had delivery drivers like a pizza place and get DVDs to people way faster than the mail
That’s actually a good idea
the joke about The Spot at the end hits different after across the spiderverse
I relate to blockbuster tbh
*Not really, pls don't stress*
Blockbuster is vampire
So u are vampire
the Inquisition
A vampire that wants to die
Because there's only one of you out there and that's what makes you unique?
Y PUT tbh IF ITS A LIE!!!??
Krook I’m with your mum right now and she’s worried about you
“Customers love Little Chef” got me
I love this channel so much. It's this wonderful mixture of nostalgia, snark, smart-assery, and trivia. It's awesome. Thank you for all the hard work you guys put into it.
During my high school senior trip in 2013 we stopped by a little plaza in the morning for Starbucks and McDonald's. We weren't allowed in any other establishments, but in the same plaza was an operating Blockbuster that my friends and I wanted to explore. It was incredibly weird to see new movie posters in the windows since I hadn't been in one of their stores in like 7 years at that point.
You know what else wanted to die?
Not me of course! I’m already dead inside
nut Haha you’re hilarious because you’re being self depreciating XD
Three years later, they're cracking down on password sharing.
True Story: I graduated from college in 1993 and fielded offers from various companies wanting to hire me (you see, kids, back in those days employers actually tried to recruit you directly out of college---you didn't have to go looking). Blockbuster was one of them, and they were really high on my list because they were a huge company and growing like wildfire, plus it was a movie rental business, so... fun! I thought. They flew me at their expense to San Antonio, Texas (I lived in the mid-west at the time), and I was thinking, awesome, going to be working in a regional office or something big and.... nope, they wanted me for an assistant manager at a store. I couldn't believe they went to so much trouble for such a minor position. The "salary" was pure crap; when factoring in the potential number of hours, it made the salary even worse, close to minimum wage, and benefits were laughable. On top of that, they strongly encouraged me to start learning Spanish, because Texas.... and when I told the rep it wasn't sounding promising, he gave me a whole spiel about how big and invincible Blockbuster was, and how their future was "cutting edge" and preparing to expand in more ways than anybody could imagine (he meant game rentals, I suppose). I turned it down, low-level retail was NOT why I had worked my a$$ off getting a degree. Ended up taking a job with a hotel chain.... so not much better, but I still think of that recruiter and how wrong he was predicting the future of the company.
I feel the same about Sears vs Amazon. A large part of Sears used to be their catalog sales where you could literally order anywhere and either have the item sent to you or pick it up in store. How easy would it have been to transition that to an online model and with their brand recognition they could have plastered Amazon before they became profitable.
15:23 turns out it was a good shout
Does Anyone remember
When they they did a colaberation with a big music concert in texas.?
Bush, No doubt
big acts
U come in to blockbuster
Buy a small portable cooler inside was 4 tickets for the show, cooler cost 20 bucks it was crazy.
We shut down the highways to the raceway, and over packed the concert can't believe it didn't get shut down.
Funny fact: here in the Netherlands we also had a kind of dutch Blockbuster called Videoland. They also were looking at the growth of online streaming and, unlike Blockbuster, started their online streaming service just as Netflix got a foot on the ground. They mostly stream Dutch movies and series but are able to provide some other european based series to their database, making them the biggest succesfull dutch streaming service whilst their physical stores got shut down by themselves, because the upkeep was too expensive, a very long time ago. And now they even work together with dutch commercial television to have some Videoland exclusives on their site. Amazing to think what could've become of blockbuster if they just took that deal...
There were two Blockbusters close to my house. Both had the rudest clerks of any place I've ever shopped. The selection of current movies was always out of stock. They tried to sell you over-priced candy and popcorn, and the late fees were horrible. I was so pleased when the closed their doors.
I remember when blockbuster tried to sell games.
Bring back the corners
Where I live there is still a closed Blockbuster with the sign and posters in the windows. The rent for the store is so high that it's just sat empty since they closed. It's a constant reminder of simple times.
when my blockbuster announced it was closing in like a week back then I just rented a shit ton of movies and just kept them since they were closing
Haha, my home state of Alaska had 2 of the last 4 Blockbusters and they were independently owned. They had lots of fun movie and tv series related merchandise as well as provided their usual game/movie rentals. Idk, it was always fun and nostalgic going there and the only place I could get my Harry Potter and other weirdly themed candies
Botts beans are the best ^.^
When blockbuster was closing and sold off all there dvds and games I got a doctor who box set and Prometheus for £5
Former teenage Blockbuster employee here. My location got closed pretty early in the downfall. I wonder how many disks and cassettes that got destroyed when they fell. Probably multiple millions. I wonder how many films lost viewings merely because they were obscure and unknown and eventually scrapped entirely due to age. I didn't know about the phone app! 🤣
The parallels to Blockbuster dying because they believed no one would jump ship so easily and the same happening with Netflix after the password sharing disaster is ah *chefs kiss* the definition of irony. The CEO of Netflix said the EXACT SAME THING and now their absolutely dying.
blockbuster is the Toys "r" Us if the 2000's
I bloody well will because down here in Australia we still have Toys "R" Us ... idk if that argument works but idk XD
Everything from my childhood is becoming redundant and irrelevant. :((
Fuck you, innovation!
Except that Toys R Us still exists...
Toys R Us just opened two new stores in the US. One in Texas and one in New Jersey.
"You wouldn't rent a movie from blockbuster!"
You know you're getting old when you hear a TH-camr talk about Little Chef and you remember Happy Eater...
I don’t think my family got a Netflix subscription till our local Blockbuster closed
Would love a "Where are they now?" For Blockbuster execs who made those dense at decisions (or other terrible, infamous executives)
Knowing the world of executives, they got hired at other random companies with a "hiring bonus" in the millions. Despite being an objectively horrid choice for such a position. Happens again and again and I wonder if those born on top ever learned from the failure of the Habsburg family.
The blockbuster in Anchorage is closing, even after receiving Russel Crowe’s jock strap and the vest from lesmis. 😢 they’re selling everything for about $1 tho.
My friend worked there for a while before he left for the army. It was fun hearing his blockbuster stories every now and then.
The part of the blockbuster story no one talks about is the fact their answer to streaming video and Netflix mail program, was to not only open their own services of each, but to also start a second chain in hopes of video rental stores to monopolize other brick and mortar video stories out of the market... do a story on the short lived (dead on arrival) story of "Mr. Video"
I've just found this channel and have been binge watching loads of videos. I love this channel! XD
wow blockbuster must have made a bet with someone to see how quickly they could alienate their customers and die. Great video! this had me laughing way too much
I miss block buster it was like the only place you could buy porn
Now porn is free for all.
What great time we live in.
Austin C I'm just tryna make a joke don't look into my logic
Poppers 73 not if you live here in the Philippines, where they're banning porn sites left right and center
jorge eleazar Castro
you poor soul. try tumblr, it's not even blocked on data plans which is wild
Porn should be banned in the US
I remember working at Blockbuster when Netflix came out. EVERY employee immediately thought “wow...we should buy this tiny company, it’s gonna be huge. Watch corporate f*** this up.” Everyone tried to pass that info on to the top. So much for that. That’s corporate executives for you. Good at climbing ladders and...not much else.
You're giving them too much credit and assuming they weren't just stuck at the top by other execs.
you have great videos. been watching for a while. subbed. keep up the great work.
I'm going to make a pokemon mod and change "Rock Smash" into "Blockbuster" :)
It'll basically be Self Destruct but with a base damage of zero XD
4:25 Well that aged terribly
I rented Splinter Cell Double Agent back in the day from Blockbuster during a two week rental promo they had. The store closed during this and I had to return the game to another store. Well the store I returned it to did not note that it was from a closed store. They did not contact me at all. The next time I went in, they tried to charge me $60 for a used game or $45 dollars for a restocking fee. I got the manager involved and the sad part is they had admitted there was no way to track it because it was already mailed back to the warehouse because the game was no longer "in season". So I never paid, and they went under shortly after that.
Great video. Now I gotta go and return some video tapes to the next video rental store
Last time i was this early, my girlfriend sighed and went to sleep
thegurem been there pal
The sheer amount of dvds I stole blockbuster is impressive
I’d like to clarify as a kid 😂
2:32 Tuning in about 4 1/2 years later to say, according to Wikipedia, Little Chef was made defunct in January 2018.
Shortly before Blockbuster declared bankruptcy, I subscribed to their last-ditch effort deal of pay so much for unlimited (one at a time, I believe) in-store rentals, as well as one DVD at a time via mail. Months later, bankruptcy is declared and the store in my neighborhood closes down. I continue to receive the DVDs by mail for a bit before up and canceling my subscription. However, there were still titles left in my cue that I had never received. So despite me taking my credit card information off of the website, I continued to receive the DVDs in my cue right up until they ended the service. This went on for a good six months, and I was never charged.
Weird watching this now when Netflix is testing if it is possible to charge people for sharing their Netflix password
And now adding commercials
"lmao they'd make a movie about The Spot"
🤔
This has been my favourite TH-cam channel for the past year - keep it up smallwood
During the mid-to-late 90's when I was in high school in NYC, Blockbuster was my go-to for video game rentals (and Anime too, as I discovered them there in '94). I rented so much from the local Blockbuster store that I actually played every game they had (pre-PS1 consoles) and watched every anime they had, in some cases re-renting games I hadn't yet beaten or movies I really enjoyed. I was even on a first-name basis with a couple of store employees (Sergio, wherever you are, you still owe me that Tetris challenge).
Before those years, my grandparents would bring me to a mom-and-pop rental store that didn't have many options for games, but it was enough to give me a taste of games I'd eventually want to buy (and others I'd want to avoid).
In 2005, I ended up working part-time for a Blockbuster store in Vale's Gate, NY. The job wasn't anything spectacular (although I did hate the fact that we had to push the Movie Pass on our customers, even when it was pretty clear they didn't want it; I did notice that people liked the Game Pass more often than not), but I loved getting five free rentals *_per week_*, which could consist of any combination of video games and movies from within the store as long as they were not complete new releases (less than a month). Unfortunately, I had to leave that job long before I could exhaust their game collection when they stopped giving me hours as I picked up a full-time gig elsewhere.
Learning just how poorly they managed their business, I'm not surprised at all at their downfall. Clearly the people in charge lacked actual business sense. Honestly, I've had a Netflix account for ten years now and don't watch anything other than that (and TH-cam). It was a fun ride when they were at their prime, and I'll always have fond memories of Blockbuster from my youth, but they were dead long ago. Poor bastards.
I can completely relate
*cause I wanna die too*
Mason RobertsTV u are vampire
Attention seaker
Lmao so original *slaps knee*
Mason RobertsTV I hope you're gonna be ok?!❤️❤️
Mason RobertsTV same here ...
I actually know that there’s a toysRus in a plaza where I am, next time I go I’ll take a picture and send it to you.
I still have like 5 Blockbuster mail DVDs in my cupboard.
Just found some right on top: Collateral, The Wedding Date, and Spider Man 2. So glad I kept those.
To mention, it wasn't originally tiered. You could buy a deal and take out as many dvds as possible out and order some too. It drastically raised their snack sales and of course popularity but then they increased gredier and gredier profit tiers, like EA.
Boy did that spot reference not age well
It is intresting watching the viedo after netflix took a downturn caused in part by not adapting.
Yup, I worked for Blockbuster for seven years. The pay was shit but I loved that job. I made it to assistant store manager. When we had the regional meeting regarding the transition to "no more late fees" and the "you bought it charge" in 2005, I left that meeting, went home that night, did up my resume and started job hunting immediately. I was gone in a month.
The one that baffled me the most was that when I started, we were still a part of the Viacom/Paramount brand and we were a month away from the home video release of the biggest movie of all time; Titanic (Paramount pictures). It was our job to presell the movie. It soon got out that Safeway grocers, HMV, and Best Buy, all in the same shopping center, were all selling it for less money than us. The reason I got was our cost per unit was higher. So much for corporate synergy.
As a former employee of Blockbuster, they wanted to push the idea of having a delivery driver movies to customers. The idea was to have someone order a movie via a phone call and the nearest store deliver it to them. However, they thought it would cost too much money and they spent the money instead with teaming up with Direct TV subscription. In 1999, we had to go through training about delivery driving rental orders. And soon afterward, when the system didn't work, we where trained on selling Direct TV.
I remember when we would order Netflix movies in the mail lol😂😂😂 am I old?
I swear there’s about 6 stores, not 1. John Oliver donated a bunch of Russell Crowe props to one of them. And then Russell Crowe named a Koala Calmidia ward after him.
I love you guys, I just found you like 2 days ago but y'all are soooo funny.
That "Blockbuster" is only in name, it is not a corporate entity. I closed the LAST corporate Blockbuster on the SW side of Oklahoma City about a decade ago in the Blockpockalypse. You are right, they made bad business choices at the end when streaming started and the transition period was when the mail rental and Redboxes went viral. Dish bought Blockbuster and they lost all the studio rights to rentals; the store managers would have to go to Wal-Mart and/or Best Buy in town early Tuesday mornings and buy up a shit load of video stock for rentals...then when the rentals made enough money, we'd send a big chunk to their corporate office for them to send to people by mail to rent instead. Additionally, they tried to make us sell Dish 2 year contracts to people...and our store was in-between the urban black and brown low income areas...people with no money, no credit, many times no documentation at all...2 year contracts...think about it. At the end about a month out, I knew their "fire sales" were coming (where we sell the whole store inventory, even the shelves), so I let my employees collect all the movies and games they wanted, put them in boxes in the back store room, and waited for the last week when everything was less than a dollar so everyone at least got severance of premium loot. I kept the spiral Blockbuster gum machine we all remember, an orange apron with Blockbuster patch, the sealing machine and hot guns, and even ripped the Restroom movie clacker looking sign off the bathroom door.
...and, I shit you not, as I clicked Post...a Dish van drove by outside. LMMMFAAOOOO
4:23 Well that didn't age well then
there are currently still 6 blockbusters in the wild. 1 in the U.S.A. and 5 in australia
Xander The Profit there's a few in the us, one in Texas(they were on the news for being one of the last still standing block busters whom still have regular customers just a few days ago and don't plan on shutting down anytime soon), a few in Alaska (I think they have 2 or 3 if they weren't closed down), and I belive one in Arkansas
It depends, do you count vending machines? Only 3 of the Blockbusters left in Australia are actual stores. 2 of them are actually like DVD vending machines as opposed to actual stores.
There used to be a blockbuster in my old hometown located almost next to the cinema (I think it was separated by a kebab shop) and once the company closed down it got replaced by a Sainsbury's Local. Mind you there was already a Sainsbury's superstore in the town but having two was amazing.
And, while I didn't go in there often, I have fonder memories of it than blockbuster.
The building that used to be blockbusters in my town has been empty since it closed down and has only just this year turned part of it into a subway. Still has the blockbuster song above it too
In the us or at least in northern Illinois we have Family Video and stood against Blockbuster and Netflix, it still lives
I have seen a few here in central Illinois too
Michael Vnuk we have family video in NC
We still have Family Video in Michigan too.
Oscar Salazar We have one by St. Louis Missouri that shares the building with a pizza place, Marco's pizza. If you get an order of $12 or more you get a free video.
There are over 700 family videos I wish the one I worked in had a marcos pizza tho, rip me
Im going to say nice video even though its only been out for a min. lol
"I imagine Ironfist wouldn't be that much different" - Fucking brutal perfection.
6:46 Your facial expression when you said that is killing me!